Pagasa Cebu urges public to be always on alert during bad weather

‘intensifies its weather advisory drive thru SMS’

By Amorganda A. Saludar

Monday 16th of July 2012

CEBU CITY, July 16 (PIA) -– The public is urged to be always on alert and be prepared to mitigate effects of disasters with the onset of the rainy season.

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical & Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) – Mactan weather specialist Evangeline Tolentino said their agency is widening its scope on weather advisory update drive through short messaging service (SMS) apart from daily radio and television weather news broadcast.

“We urge the public to be vigilant at all times especially those situated in flood and landslide prone areas amidst the occurrence of heavy rains with the onset of the rainy period,” said Tolentino, during the recent PIA Kapihan on July as National Disaster Consciousness Month.

He added that they have gathered mobile numbers of local government officials, including barangay heads, to update them on latest weather conditions and immediately warn their constituents during bad weather.

Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) 7 Regional Dir. Minda Morante, on the other hand, said that the public should make it a habit of getting information on the latest weather condition as there is a huge difference between level of awareness and readiness during calamities.

“There is a high awareness level on disaster preparedness but then readiness is another thing. We do not only want increased awareness but we want preparations converted into actions in case disaster strikes,” said Morante.

Morante added that the public is still in the continuing process of learning (the things to do during calamities), despite the high awareness level. But the crucial question now is the readiness of the public,” Morante declared.

The OCD 7 chief said the process of information flow by the RDRRMC 7 in the information alert in weather bulletins is to immediately relay the official information from Pagasa to its member agencies and likewise the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils, through the Office of the Governors, which is then responsible in disseminating the weather advisory to the local government units and the latter down to the barangay level.

“This is separate from the usual weather alert drive conducted by Pagasa and other member agencies. The redundancy of information dissemination is to ensure that the community has been given the needed information, raise their awareness level, and give time for our emergency teams involved and for concerned agencies to preposition themselves,” Morante said.

Chief geologist Al Emil Berador of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Mines and Geosciences Bureau-7 said the local government units in the region have been furnished already with the geohazard map for their reference on their respective disaster action plans. The map contains the areas which are prone to landslides and flooding, Berador added.

“The office will fully support the implementation of any measures concerning safe and security of the public. We also encourage LGUs to use the maps and make reference to the reports issued to them,” Berador said.

The Department of Interior and Local Government-7 also intensified its monitoring on the LGUs’ compliance on Disaster Preparedness Action Plan.

DILG-7 assistant regional director Elias Fernandez said that, “On our end, we assure that that we will inform the public on the weather news advisories from mandated agencies.” (FCR/AYS-PIA 7, Cebu)